Endure

If you want a good one stop shop for this type of content this is a great place to start.

after a decade of listening to podcast about endurance sport felt like a lot of stuff I had heard before.

Three stars feels too low, but the Goodreads “I really liked it” seems a bit overenthusiastic for this.

Lots of it was really good! Some cool science, some interesting stories, and it's refreshing to see a book like this from someone who was close to that elite level. It definitely passed the test of whether I was telling people anecdotes as I was reading them.

Some things bugged me though, similar to other reviewers. While the book admitted it wasn't a how-to guide, I definitely wish it had had more tips or things to try. Especially since the author briefly described things that did work for him! Also, his tendency to wander in a narrative was sometimes annoying, I generally don't need my nonfiction to be weaving stories in and out of each other but I understand that's a taste thing.

Also, the book feels like it will be rapidly outdated and due for a new edition. The central story tying so many chapters together was Eliud Kipchoge's first sub-2:00 marathon attempt, but he's since beaten that, and some of the science was cutting edge at the time with only preliminary results.

As a last point, the audiobook narrator did a pretty bad job. He mispronounced so many names (especially of the African endurance athletes), and was inconsistent, changing from different pronunciations within the same chapters. He also misread 2:05 as “two minutes and five seconds” instead of “two hours and 5 minutes”, which shouldn't have been hard to pick up on given the chapter context.

Is the limit in the body's physiology or in the mind, or in a combination of the two? (Mine is surely in the mind, I haven't gone close to limits of my body for running, swimming or cycling)

An exploration of research on limits of endurance performance and how to stretch them. I really enjoyed the middle and last section of the book—covering various physiological elements affecting the body, and the research on identifying and stimulating areas of the brain to stretch performance.
9/10.

Such a great book that I need to read again as time goes by!

Una exhaustiva investigación que intenta trazar el límite del desempeño físico de atletas de elite. ¿Donde están los límites físicos, mentales, biomecánicos, nutricionales, motivacionales e intrínsecos de cada uno? ¿Es posible, una vez trazado ese límite, empujarnos para ir un paso mas allá sin sufrir las consecuencias? ¿Y si no existiese dicho límite siquiera, si fuese todo una construcción de nuestras mentes en pos de la supervivencia?

Estas preguntas y una tonelada más intentan ser respondidas en una producción con fuertísimo fundamento científico y que se podría volver fácilmente un manual de consulta para tener a mano junto a tantos otros libros sobre entrenamiento.

Hutchinson tiene muchísima experiencia en el tema, y se nota en cada párrafo.